Korean in Me

This week I was invited to go to a Korean dinner with some Korean co-workers and while I was very hesitant at first, I conceded and decided I could take my first step towards learning about my roots now rather than waiting til 2018 (See "About Me" post).  So on Friday night I met up with some nice Koreans at a place way down on Buford Highway called Woo Nam Jung.  Since I know nothing about Korean food besides the Korean BBQ tacos I love from Yumbii and I'm willing to try almost anything, I let one of the girls order for me.  We ordered several dishes to share because I wanted to try as much food as possible and Lord did we have a lot of food!

Now I must say every time I asked what we were eating my fellow Korean cohorts would tell me the name of the dish super fast, and I would just nod and say, "OK" having no idea what they just said.  So at the end of dinner, I grabbed a to-go menu and my new friends circled the dishes we had for the little Korean-that-could so I could tell all of my 4 blog readers what we ate.

Dack Dori Tang

Haemul Jongol

The first dishes we had were soups that were served in these big pots atop a burning gas fire that cooked at our table for about 10 minutes.  The Dack Dori Tang consisted of braised chicken simmered in a spicy soup filled with potatoes, onions, and red peppers.  Korean food is known for being extremely spicy; however, I didn't find any of this food to be overwhelmingly hot.  Maybe I am becoming more Korean!  But I did feel all the dishes had a similar spicy taste.  This chicken, though, was so tender and juicy and the veggies were great!  I did like how all the plates had tons of vegetables, so I didn't feel as guilty indulging myself in all this food.   

The second stew we had was a seafood extravaganza!  There were mussels, crab, codfish, squid, clams, shrimp, and scallops all in this one bowl.  I don't know how they fit all those fishies in there but it worked!  The broth all those flavors made was ridiculous!  In the end I just poured the soup over my left over rice because I could just not get enough.  And of course we had to have noodles!  Bibim Nang Myun was a dish of chilled buckwheat noodles with beef and vegetables tossed in a spicy chili sauce.  This was definitely the most spicy entree, but I love me some noodles and devoured it.  

Last were the short ribs!  Kalbi Chim included slow simmered short ribs with dried dates, pine nuts, mushrooms, onions, and bell peppers.  These ribs were a bit different from the fall off the bone ribs I'm used to, but they were still flavorful and tender and of course spicy.

This meal was nothing like I have ever experienced before.  The food was so different than anything I have eaten and giving up total control and having no idea what I was putting on my plate was exhilarating.  I was with such nice, smart people and was so glad I chose to attend and overcome my Asian anxiety.